Real Think Inc.

An amazing opportunity waits for us every day. Jesus said, “Remember Me.” Is this not a great way to begin each day?

We pray, don’t we? “Oh God, bless me.”

We sing to Him, “Let the river flow:” I want more of you, and your presence, to be more fully satiated with your goodness – to be used in your mission to reach the world.

We must take Him by faith. And we must delight ourselves. He will not do what faith must do; but He will draw near to us if we will draw near to Him. (James 4:8)

The Christian, who learns this truth, will abide in Christ. Stay very close to Him. This is how we “keep ourselves in the love of God.” This is how I try and live. (Jude 1:21)

“God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

Remember me, Jesus urged us at His last supper. (Luke 22:19)

Can we not delight ourselves in Him who delights to be for us tender mercy and loving kindness?

Where on earth is a God such as ours? It is not to be found, not among any religions.

We cannot have it both ways. Let’s delight ourselves rather than mope another minute. The unknown is one way Satan steals in to rob us from delighting in God.

The one who said, “Let not your heart be troubled” said also “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Then, “He will give you the desires of your heart.” (John 14:1, Psalm 27:4)

“Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).
He delights to give to us mercy and loving kindness. Mercy and kindness are received through faith.

Faith is not based on nothing. Nor is it a claim to know the particulars through which we must all navigate.

Real faith and not blind faith involves substance: assurance from above called in scripture the down payment, the earnest of the Spirit. The same “blessed assurance” we experienced when we first believed – the “earnest of the Spirit – is that joy we find during worship. (2 Corinthians 5:5)

We trust and obey partly because we have experienced the pain of not trusting and obeying. Joseph said to his deceitful brothers who were jealous of him. You meant it for evil. God meant (your evil) to work for good. (Genesis 50:20)

The same is true of the cross upon where Jesus was hung.
The same is true of every man’s cross. Delight yourselves in the God who alone can make all things work together for the good of those who want Him.

When I delight myself in Him it is not insincere delight; but it does include that faith which takes God as the Major and the mountain walls you and I face as the minor.

God rules in every detail. “In everything give thanks, for this is (and I will ultimately see it come to pass) His will concerning me.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Because I do believe, I repeat your word written for me – “Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” Today is one of those days.

Your word encourages me to hope in you and not allow myself to be cast down, to actually really delight myself in you when others shame me for my expectation and faith in you.

Your desires for me include that I will open myself to you and allow your mercy and loving kindness to pour into my life. Every good relationship on earth involves giving and receiving.

In the midst of this life, undaunted by much difficulty, I delight myself and no man can take this from me. My delight is not fake, but does involve faith. I acknowledge Him – now – through faith. I know enough of Him to accept the whole package: the Gospel of God: the “good news.” Who I know is who I delight myself in.

This morning I give you praise, I thank you – I give myself to you.
And this morning I receive you and your mercy and loving kindness. You are Love, Love delights in mercy and loving kindness.

Only Jesus could make mercy happen: I must receive Him or reject Him. Only the Holy Spirit can fill me: God is love, will I be full of Him? I must receive Him

We sing; “Let the River flow.” His answer is already recorded, saying (You) let God arise. Faith does that. Unbelief blocks faith and blocks God.

All that Jesus said and did was guided by the Holy Spirit, and He would have mercy for us, not sacrifices from us.

He is the Sacrifice: He is the Hero! He is my Hero!

Buddy

One of my old-time favorite shows was called “Guns of Paradise.” Ethan was the hero. There was no winning against him.

Ethan had been left with three nephews to raise, two boys and a girl. In one episode Ethan had been falsely accused and stowed away in a Mexican prison. The children accompanied by a pretty school teacher friend visited the prison seeking to visit him, but they were told by prison authorities that Ethan had died and been buried. They were brought to his burial site. But the smallest child refused to believe: not Ethan, nobody could kill Ethan.

The little boy grabbed a shovel. Finally the grave was opened. He was right. Ethan could not have been beaten; not Ethan. I was moved by the little boy’s bravery, his devotion to Ethan, his courage that he must be shown that Ethan was dead.

Child-like faith is to me storybook at its best. I am a romantic, and I prefer happy endings. I am headed for one myself. Are you, reader? Then live it out.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

Live the happy ending every day – and bear fruit; because real faith is magnetic. It is God’s purpose for leaving us in the world, while keeping us from its pollution; that we be a city on a hill, a light on a hill, salt in the earth. (Matthew 5:13-16)

The life of faith is much easier than a life filled with sin. We escape much more than we, because of sin, would otherwise experience.
Believers will ultimately never be disappointed if our expectation is fixed on the Lord.
We will overcome the feelings of disappointment, and we will see in our lives the hand of God over and over again.

These things – “I killed the lion, I killed the bear” (through God and faith in Him), young David says in our Bible. “And this (giant) shall be as they.”

In our Bible in chapter 11 is a record of our examples for faith.

Being a Christian is a “way;” faith as trust, believing and hoping; but also having the “inner witness” which the world cannot feel, sense, or know.

Our faith is built upon a strong Rock that is “Higher than I (alone).”

“I shall not be moved,” says the man of faith.

“What shall separate me from the love of God,” says the man founded and grounded in God

“Nothing shall separate me from the love of God.” Shall sin? No, I will run into the consuming fire of my Savior God and He will wash me white as snow. Will evil bodings? No! I will overcome by the blood of the Lamb – and the word of my testimony.” (Revelations 10:11) (Romans 8:38-39)

He is not dead. He is not in the grave nor will I remain there. He is Risen! He sent to me His Holy Spirit. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me. He has anointed me.” “As He is, so am I in the world.” (1 John 4:17)

Sometimes: “Out of the same mouth proceeds both a blessing and a curse: my brethren, that ought not so to be.” (James 3:10)

Lord, I want to be like Jesus in heart, speech, and action.

Buddy

Not by virtue of beliefs alone can we have real assurance. A person needs truth plus experience in order to be rest assured.

To say, “Well, a person must believe in something,” is a way of creating assurance.

“Rest assured,” cites Jesus, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

There is faith and hope. These have to do with some perception, hopefully true, that a person possesses.

Today’s suicide bomber possesses hope and faith in the perception planted in his mind.

Yesterday’s Third Reich was built on the theme that to cleanse the world of Jews would yield a better world, a better place to live.

Actually, the LORD will separate the sheep from the goats; not allow entrance into His heaven to those whose choice it was to remain in their sins rather than receiving divine forgiveness of sin, acknowledging and confessing it, and turning in hope to the Savior from it.

Our educated elite have re-defined sin. Christian values have been ruled by them, outdated and therefore bigoted, judgmental, sometimes a civil crime to even express.

We are each an individual. As such, we can experience faith, hope, and love.

Love, real love, is a permanent thing, beneficial more than a philosophy or a religion. Love transcends religions, infiltrates them when allowed, does not know bigotry.

Love alone can grant us assurance in this world where absolutely we will have only passed through, and where, also assuredly, we will have encountered much difficulty.

With faith and hope we attempt to deal with reality: Love is the Great Reality; but love can be rejected, ignored, even abused.

Shall we consider promises Jesus makes:

• He will never leave or forsake.
• You shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Rest assured – take heed, use your faith and place your hope upon this Rock, on “Me” he says, and the truth I have spoken. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may be also. (John 14:3-16:33).

In times like ours, and many times and places in history, to keep silent meant the difference between life and death, punishment and torture and the lack of it.

As it was with Jesus concerning these, it has been to those who have been evangelical; that is, those who invite others to the One who did take away the sins of the world and for so many the addictions to abuses in all forms.

Never has a text been more vividly either challenged or received as the Bible. There we learn not to accept our sinning as normal but as abnormal, destructive, yet as forgiven if we receive what God did for us through His Son. Within the pages we find that life is a gift from God, not a mere biological accident and it is meant for us.

Rest assured, “your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).
We can run; but we cannot hide. The choice only, is ours; the provisions always were.

So, dear friends, do not rest until you have entered into that “Rest which remains for the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9)

Do not rest from your search until you find the One who came for you. Do not stop with finding Him. “Be filled with His Spirit” abide in Him who alone can invest His assurance within.

Buddy